As they say Diwali is a season for celebrations and festivity, Sampoorna
Lakshmi Pooja pack makes a perfect gift for Diwali - the
festival of lights. The pack has small deity idols, 30 pooja essentials and a
booklet and audio cd which conveniently guides you through the pooja step by
step. Since I don’t practice these ritual poojas, this year I would like
to gift Sampoorna Lakshmi Pooja pack to my childhood bestfriend who lives
abroad and finding it difficult to do poojas traditionally. I am sure she will
be delighted to receive this gift.

A nice cold salad is ready.We can also prepare salad cream earlier and store it in fridge for almost a week. Useful at times of our hurry burry moments.

The addition of banana is quite different but gives a unique flavor to this simple yet a tasty recipe. You can never go wrong in this quick salad dish.I am Hungry. I am gonna nibble (or gobble ?!)... Care to join me? :DHappy Eating - Yum Yum Mum Mum.

19 Oct 2013

The other day when I was planning to cook
Palak Paneer for dinner and surfing the fridge in the last minute for Paneer.. alas.. it was not available enough to serve my family. Only some potatoes left in the vegetable basket. So I made use of it. It tasted so good and here I am sharing it here, my quick recipe.

Ingredients

Palak / Spinach - 1 bunch

Potato - 3 boiled, peeled and cubed

Onion - 2 pureed

Tomato - 2 pureed

Green Chillies - 1

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Chilli powder – 1 tsp

Dhania powder – 1 tsp

Cumin powder – ½ tsp

Sonf powder – 1 tsp

Sugar – ¼ tsp

Salt

Milk . ¼ cup

Oil – 2 tsp

Cloves, cardamom cinnamon for
seasoning.

Method

Separate the leaves of spinach from
the thick stem. Wash and clean the leaves. And then grind it to a puree along
with the green chilli. Set aside.

Heat oil in the pan and add the onion
paste. Add garam masala. Fry little and then add ginger garlic paste and sauté till raw smell
fades off. Add tomato puree and salt and the other spices. Stir well. When tomato puree
turns little thick, add the palak puree, sugar and salt. Add little water to cook,
in medium flame for around 5 mins. When the gravy is cooked, add boiled
potatoes. And mix well. Finally add milk and simmer for 2 mins. Don’t cook in
high flame now cos it may curdle the milk. Finally before removing from fire,
check and add extra spices n salt as per your taste buds.

7 Oct 2013

Mr. A.X.
Ahmad's grew up in India,
was educated at MIT and worked for many years as an International architect
before taking up writing full time. This is his first novel. But as Amin Ahmad, his short stories and essays
have been published in many literary magazines.

Affected
from a haunting hallucination from his dishonorable past in Indian Military
Service, Captain Ranjit Singh is now an illegal Sikh immigrant in America with his wife Preetam and his young daughter Shanti trying to start a new life in Boston. After couple of years working in his uncle's grocery store, he manages to find the caretaker job for few wealthy residents in Martha’s Vineyard. One of his
clients is Senator Neals, an African-American politician who just returns back
as a Hero after his visit from North
Korea and his wife Anna Neals.

With
heavy oil leakage in his rented house and having no other choice, one day
Ranjit has to secretly move his family to the Senator’s vacant house to survive
the winter. Unfortunately one night two armed men breaks into the house and so they
are forced to flee, fearing of getting arrested for trespassing. The little
girl, Shanti grabs one of the wooden dolls from Anna’s collection just before
they escapes. But soon he learns those men are after that particular doll. Tangled
in between some deadly people who try to retrieve the doll
and a threat to his family, he is caught in the middle of a political scandal.

So
who are these mysterious men? What is the secret behind that doll? Will Ranjit be
able to unravel the mystery? Can he save his family in time? Did he overcome
the past event which spoiled his life back in India?Having so much to do but with little resources and short time span, all hell breaks loose and now Ranjit is a wanted man with a stake on his life.

My
View

Basically
I am a slow reader and especially with my reading block, I
take days to complete a book. But gladly this novel broke my block and kept me engaged from the
beginning till the end. When I first saw the cover, I started liking it for its simplicity. And I must mention this is a well written, page turning book and I
enjoyed reading it thoroughly. At the end of the day, I am a happy reader who
got this intriguing novel from the Harper Collins book review program, in
Indiblogger.

The
Caretaker is definitely an engaging thriller. The story moves back and
forth between past and present - Siachen Glaciers where a secret military operation takes place
and Martha’s Vineyard where the hero is on the
run. The action is split between Indo - Pak border and the
chases in Boston and at the island. And I appreciate that the protagonist’s haunting past is
effectively interlinked with the present day especially during his tough times.
It was an easy flow of narration that it made the story even more gripping.
Also thankfully the author didn't go much into those confused political
details.

Each characters are etched in a realistic way that even their flaws helped the story in taking it to the next level. The
book also showcases the immigrants’ lives in U.S. From the Brazilian ferry
driver to the handicapped Vietnamese military veteran and that Arab old man,
they all have their own characterization and helps the lead guy to carry on with his mission further.

With
some twists coming through out and the plot moves along so quickly I found it
was hard to put the book down. The beginning chapters made me glued to it that
I didn't even want to skip a word whereas I found it bit dragging with some
prolonged scenes in the last few chapters, especially, those intimate moments
between Ranjit and Anna, cooking good food and wanting for more Tea, that too
with his injury and when his family is suffering in deportation. To me, it was
bit of a cliche. But altogether the book ended better with an opening
to the sequel. It was like watching a fast paced action movie.

Overall
I found this as an entertaining and engrossing read. I may not call it as a must
read book but without any second thought, I recommend this if you are
into any mystery and thrillers, like me.

A promising debut novel from the author and I am looking forward to his next
book with the hero of our times, Ranjit as the lead, and it will be a sequel to this
novel because the mission is still on...

I am...

I love to rhyme with words while I pen down my thoughts. I love to capture little moments that make me happy and I believe my visuals speak more than my words. I scribble Stories, Poems, Reviews and more to make my world special.